i have to do a paper on a career of my choice and i need information on it can you please help me???

-- Anonymous, November 22, 1999

Answers

Well, be prepared as a criminal defense attorney not to make much money-- most criminals aren't really able to afford first-rate repesentation,and public defenders are paid about what McDonald's pays its people. And you have to have a really stong commitment to the ideal that everyone is entitled to a defense, since most of the clients you'll get really are guilty. You'll have to get over the anxiety that comes with knowing that if you screw up, some poor bastard is going to jail. At least corporate attorneys can only lose their clients' money; you can lose someone's freedom. And be able to argue-- not just in front of a jury, but with prosecutors while arranging plea bargains.

-- Anonymous, November 24, 1999

I would disagree with your salary assessment, Lohr. Criminal defense lawyers don't make much in comparison to private attorneys. They still make a lot of money compared to the general population. I'm 30 and I make a lot more money than most college graduates my age. And criminal defense attorneys make significantly more money than most other public interest lawyers, such as legal aid lawyers.

Marielle, you don't say where you are in school right now. Assuming you're in the U.S., the rules are the same in most states: you generally need a four year degree, and then you have three years of law school ahead of you (or four years if you go part time). Criminal defense jobs got to be a little hard to come by in California a few years ago, so it is a somewhat competitive field these days. While you're in law school, you want to participate in every mock trial or trial practice course available. As soon as you are eligible (usually after your second year of law school, although I started after my first year), try to get a legal research job with a public defender's or district attorney's office. In California, you are allowed to appear in court after your second year in law school if you are supervised by an attorney and you meet the requirements to become a certified law student. Other students will be getting this experience, and they'll have an edge over you if you don't have it, too.

Let me know if you have more specific questions.

-- Anonymous, November 24, 1999

Hey, not to start a fight between Beth and Lohr, but: What about Lohr's statement that you need to have a strong commitment to the idea that everyone is entitled to a defense, even the guilty defendants, to be an effective criminal defense attorney?

Is that true? I'm not bothered by the thought of arguing in favor of reasonable doubt in order to free someone whom the state has accused of a crime, no matter what the circumstances. The fear of putting someone behind bars for life because I made wrong strategy call is what keeps me out of the field.

I don't see any big moral issue about defending guilty people. Remember, if one person's attorney can decide to refuse his or her defense because of how the case smells, then everybody's attorney is allowed. Do you want your paid representative to act as judge and jury, too? Imagine being brought up on drunk-driving charges and hiring an attorney who decides that you're guilty, and that getting convicted will teach you a lesson.

The mistake people make, in my opinion, is that they confuse the lawyer's role with other professionals like doctors or engineers. A doctor shouldn't prescribe a drug that isn't warranted, and an engineer shouldn't build a bridge that she believes will fall. But an attorney's job is to advocate the client's position, whatever position that is. If you want a sex change, it's not up to your attorney to decide whether that's good for you. The advocate's job is to determine how to get you what you want.

-- Anonymous, November 24, 1999

Oh, you're absolutely right, Tom. But I would say that you have just exhibited a "very strong commitment" to the idea that everyone is entitled to representation. It may seem self evident to you and to me, but there were a whole lot of people in my law school class who said they could never defend anyone who was "guilty." (Never mind that everyone is supposed to be innocent until proven guilty.) And a couple of years ago, a lawyer in California wrote a letter to California Lawyer in which she proclaimed that it is unethical for a criminal defense attorney to defend someone they know is guilty. She said something along the lines of, "Everyone may be entitled to a defense, but everyone is not entitled to me."

So it's apparently still a pretty radical idea that everyone gets a lawyer and the lawyer does her best to represent her client's interests, even if the client is "guilty."

-- Anonymous, November 24, 1999

I can see the point there, though. I think it takes a mighty good lawyer to be able to give the same quality of defense to someone they know is guilty as they would to someone they believed at least might have been innocent. And if you don't feel able to do that, then it might be unethical to take the case. Not because you think 'guilty' people aren't entitled to defense, but because everyone is entitled to as good of a defense as possible.

-- Anonymous, November 25, 1999

One salary problem is that when you emerge from law school, you'll be so deeply in debt that you'll have to choose an area of law that pays well-- which often cuts out public interest areas. I'll be $60K in debt (plus my other debts-- car note, $10K credit cards), and I go to a state law school that's one of the least expensive in the US... Corporate work is the only way to pay things off. A friend working for the Public Defender's office in New Orleans was actually paid less than I made as an instructor at a state university-- and little Indonesian kids slaving for Nike made more than I did while teaching.

-- Anonymous, November 26, 1999